Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Mahon report. Since we as Members were elected to both this House and the other House we have been placed in a very challenging position with the publication of the Mahon tribunal report but also with the publication of the Moriarty tribunal report. I cannot imagine that any Oireachtas in the history of this institution had before it in one term two reports that have gone to the heart of everything we do as Members of an Oireachtas and as public representatives both locally and nationally. Regardless of whether we belong to a party, we must act on these reports to ensure that no future Oireachtas has to deal with this kind of legacy.

The Mahon report is a catalogue of disservice. Every single finding represents disservice, at the very least, betrayal and, in many cases, treachery. It represents disservice to the people in communities across this country who are the living victims of the report and everything contained in it. They were sent into housing without proper facilities in areas where there are still no functioning community, transport or sporting facilities. It is a disservice in terms of the trust communities across this country placed in their public representatives, be they local or national. It is a disservice to the reputation of this country nationally and internationally.

In terms of those members of my party against whom findings have been made it is a disservice to the very decent members of our party across this island who feel betrayed and disgusted by everything they had seen in the Mahon tribunal and who feel let down by those members of our party named in the report. It is a disservice to the thousands of people who serve and have served as public representatives in this House, in the other House and in council chambers across the country since the foundation of the State who served only in the interest of their communities and in doing so made huge sacrifices.

As an Oireachtas, we face a particular challenge. We have got to deal with the findings in this report and in the previous report. We must deal with that legacy of disservice and ensure that we act and meet the challenge head-on. All of us would do well to read chapter 18 and the recommendations therein. I hope that rather than coming back with some vague aspirational proposal the Minister, Deputy Hogan, as the Government's co-ordinator of the response, will come back in May with an action plan for the Government's implementation plans and timelines for dealing with the proposals in chapter 18. As we prepare to enter the Easter recess it is not too much to ask that by the time we approach the summer recess in the middle of July many of the recommendations, legislatively or otherwise, will be in place or published because if we are serious we must do it as quickly as that.

I know the Government parties are slightly sensitive about the entire area of the Moriarty report. I will not engage in the slagging because I do not want to deflect the focus from the report we are discussing but we must consider that this week last year we were having a similar debate on the Moriarty tribunal. In that debate 99% of us who are in this House to try to do the job expressed the same thoughts and annoyance but a year later we are not much further on in regard to the Moriarty report. For the sake of those of us who are here and those we serve, much greater attention must be paid to that particular tribunal report.

It is clear that our party is the focus of this tribunal report, although other parties are mentioned. We moved very quickly on it. Within hours of the publication of the report we convened our officer board and moved very quickly in terms of expulsions and reorganisation of areas. However, it is important from our point of view that the meeting that will take place this Friday is not the end of the process but the start of a process. The document has gone to our rules and procedures committee and we will bring in many changes to the way we do things. We take this report seriously and those of us who serve the party today will be measured by the way we have reacted to this report and the way we have changed our way of doing things.

All the focus of the coverage has been on the personalities within the tribunal and the political classes. Meanwhile, the people in those communities I mentioned - I am glad the Minister of State is in the Chamber - who are the real victims have not been the focus of that coverage. Communities in this city and probably throughout the island have been really blighted by bad planning and by the manner in which maps and zonings were moved around like pieces on a chessboard, and today people live in communities with no facilities. The Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, should consider an audit of the planning decisions referred to in the Mahon tribunal report, or perhaps going further to include all planning decisions made at the time by Dublin City Council and examine what community, sporting, justice and child care facilities are in place in these communities.

If a targeted investment programme needs to be put in place to give the people in these communities the facilities they deserve, I think the Minister of State would have the support of the entire House to do so. Rather than merely dealing with all of the political issues contained in the Mahon tribunal report, let us not forget the people who lives are affected every day by the decisions and choices made as a result of the madness. They need to be remembered. I hope the Department's response includes an audit of facilities, particularly in west Dublin.

I have been re-elected to the Dáil, and there is a theory that those of us whose parents or grandparents also served here inherited our seats. This is wrong. What I have not heard is a certain respect for the House and a certain standard of how one operates as a Member of the House. It really pains me this standard has been weakened for all of us. The actions of the few have impugned every Member whether we like it or not. Unfortunately, the Mahon tribunal report has impugned every person who has served in the House since the foundation of the State. It makes me mad that the decent people in all parties and none who served in the House and in council chambers are tarred with the same brush as those named in the report and those who destroyed this profession in the interests of lining their own pockets.

We need to go through the Punch and Judy aspect of this, which we are doing now, but unless the Oireachtas decides this is it and that no future Oireachtas will have to debate such a tribunal and unless we take action by the summer recess to ensure this never happens again, we will not only do a disservice to future parliamentarians, but also to those who have served without their careers being impugned. We entrust this to the Government and the Ceann Comhairle and they will have my full support in doing so.

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